The invention relates to a new concept regarding the cause of autoimmune diseases, and other diseases currently not considered autoimmune. This concept was originally described in international patent application WO99/05175, where the incidence of naturally-occurring autoantibodies with a specific reactivity was linked to various autoimmune diseases, such as diabetes. The concept is that most diseases of infectious or non-infectious origin, with or without genetic predisposition or conditions related to the ageing process, become manifest or are aggravated by the emergence of a multispecific autoantibody. A large proportion of the population generate this autoantibody, which compromises all systems and organs which are affected by blood glucose levels, insulin levels, other hormone levels controlled by or affecting insulin and/or GPI-linked molecules, other regulatory molecules recognised by the autoantibody and phospholipids. These autoantibodies have the potential to accelerate ageing and age-related diseases, promote cancers, mediate the manifestation of diseases whether or not based on genetic predisposition and interfere with first line defence against infectious agents. That is, there is an underlying pathogenic problem which is the production of the autoantibody which depending on individual susceptibility, leads to one or more problematic conditions or diseases. An analogy would be that for any given drug, there may be one or more side-effects, none of which would be present in the absence of the drug. So, these antibodies are considered to be causative of a multitude of different disorders manifested through the same mechanism.
The pathogenic autoantibody is represented by a monoclonal antibody which recognises anti-TCR Vβ antibodies, molecules with signalling capacity, phospholipids including phosphatidyl inositol, second messengers of insulin action, single and double-stranded DNA and elements of the GPI-linkage.
Although certain therapies exist for the diseases and conditions which are discussed herein, most of these diseases remain problematic and are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. There thus remains a great need for novel therapies to be derived that are effective in the prevention, treatment and diagnosis of these conditions. Of course, in view of the wide variety of diseases of the type discussed herein, it would be of great benefit were it to be possible to derive a single therapy that would be effective for all these diseases.
The applicant has now established that certain peptides or antibodies termed peptide-counteracting antibodies may be used in the prevention, therapy and diagnosis of a wide variety of diseases and conditions.